Julia Wendell, the Polish woman who believes she is Madeleine McCann, has seen a huge breakthrough in her case.
She recently appeared on Dr Phil, where she answered some major questions about her supposed identity, and where it all began for her in thinking she could be the long time missing girl.
Then-three-year-old Madeleine went missing in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 while on vacation with her family, and her case still remains unsolved almost 16 years later.
21 year-old Wendell blew up on social media, after claiming to be Madeleine on Instagram originally, drawing attention to their physical similarities and urging for a DNA test to take place.
Wendell claimed to have similar freckles and beauty marks, as well as sharing the same distinct mark on her eye as Madeleine. She also drew attention to featured that she believes she shares with Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann.
She is currently awaiting DNA testing results to further confirm her identity.
As she waits on this, she appeared on the Dr Phil chat show last night, where she was quizzed in detail about her life, and had her chance to explain her side the story.
When explaining her childhood in more detail, Wendell claimed that she never bonded with her mother, who would often ‘change the subject’ when she asked her about missing pieces in her memory.
As well as no photos of her mum pregnant, she also claims to have no birth certificate.
Another key factor of Wendell’s case is also some of her earliest memories, which even host, Dr Phil, said is ”eerily similar to the place where Madeleine McCann was last seen alive”.
She described it as: “It was the beach and water, like sea or ocean, and there were turtles and children…”
“And I remembered light-coloured buildings, like white or very light colours, sunlight on these buildings.”
However, despite continuing to fight for her case, Wendell’s parents have released a statement saying otherwise.”
“For us as a family it is obvious that Julia is our daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin and step niece.”
“We have memories, we have pictures. Julia also has these photos because she took them from the family home with the birth certificate, as well as numerous hospital discharges.”
“We always tried to understand all situations that happened with Julia – threats to our address from Julia, her lies and manipulations, activity on the Internet.”
“The Internet won’t forget, and it’s obvious that Julia isn’t Maddie. We are devastated at this current situation.”
As for Gerry and Kate McCann, they are yet to comment.
What do you think?
